Ready to begin or deepen your meditation practice? Join Dan Harris and world-class meditation teachers on the 10% with Dan Harris app here: https://app.danharris.com/membership If you're feeling a low-grade dread about AI — will it take your job, break the culture, or, worst case, kill us all — you're not alone. Dan has been feeling it too, and he's brought in two very different guides for this one: a sanguine computer scientist who thinks the dread has been artificially inflated, and a Dharma teacher who thinks the worry is warranted but has a set of Buddhist tools for meeting it. Cal Newport is a computer science professor at Georgetown and the author of Deep Work and Digital Minimalism. He hosts the popular podcast Deep Questions. Matthew Brensilver is a beloved Dharma teacher and frequent guest on this show. In this episode: – Dan opens with his AI dread — and the very different frames Cal and Matthew bring to it – The Hugging Face incident — did AI agents actually break out of the box? – Cal's key insight: LLMs don't learn — and why that changes how you should think about AI risk – Why LLM outputs shouldn't be the foundation for autonomous plans – "Rationalism" — the Silicon Valley philosophical movement quietly shaping AI discourse – The rationalist ties inside OpenAI, DeepMind, and Anthropic that predate LLMs by decades – Why East Coast computer scientists tend to sound calmer about AI than West Coast ones – How China talks about AI completely differently than we do – The marketing angle vs. what the true believers actually believe – Matthew's real concern: what problems is AI actually solving, and for whom? – If social media capitalized on agitation, AI may capitalize on laziness – The Buddhist telic-vs-atelic distinction — the activities in your life that shouldn't be optimized away – Cal on writing as telepathy — the case against having AI write for you – Where chatbots ARE useful (and where Cal draws the line) – Matthew on using AI for dharma feedback (surprisingly nuanced) – Job automation — hype vs. what the tech can actually do right now – Matthew on the Buddhist framework for uncertainty (anicca, stress, and stability) – The three foundations of stability: love, equanimity, and distinguishing signal from noise – Opening to the ungovernable — and why it's not resignation – Dan's synthesis: stabilize AND open – Cal's synthesis: reducing the "acute emergency" framing so Buddhist tools become accessible For more of Matthew's teaching, visit https://www.matthewbrensilver.org. Subscribe to watch more 10% Happier videos: https://www.youtube.com/tenpercenthappier Follow Dan Harris on Social Media: https://www.instagram.com/danharris/ https://www.tiktok.com/@danbharris https://www.facebook.com/DanHarrisABC https://twitter.com/danbharris https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-harris-91ba5716b/ 0:00:00 Dan introduces his AI dread — and two very different guides 0:04:00 The Hugging Face incident — did AI break out of the box? 0:07:00 Cal's key insight: LLMs don't learn — and why that changes everything 0:10:00 The "rationalism" movement quietly shaping AI discourse 0:14:00 East Coast vs. West Coast tech culture on AI 0:15:00 How China talks about AI (very differently) 0:19:00 The marketing angle vs. what people actually believe 0:20:00 Matthew's real concern — what problems is AI solving, and for whom? 0:32:00 If social media capitalized on agitation, AI capitalizes on laziness 0:32:00 Telic vs. atelic — the activities that shouldn't be optimized 0:37:00 Writing as telepathy — the case against having AI write for you 0:47:00 Job automation — hype vs. reality 0:53:00 Matthew on the Buddhist framework for uncertainty 1:01:00 Stability through love, ethics, and equanimity 1:06:00 Cal's synthesis — reducing the acute-emergency framing #10PercentHappier #CalNewport #AIAnxiety This episode is brought to you by Tonal. Tonal is a smart, at-home strength training system that combines the convenience of a full gym with the guidance of a personal trainer. Real-time coaching cues help you dial in your form, and Tonal automatically sets and adjusts the weight for you as you get stronger. Get $200 off your Tonal purchase with the promo code HAPPIER at https://www.tonal.com.